YouTube Increases Upload Limits, Provides Batch Uploader

YouTube announced yesterday that it had increased the size limit for videos to 1 GB, and also introduced new software that allows users to simultaneously upload multiple videos.

Users may still opt to upload their videos to the site through the browser form if they do not wish to put a piece of YouTube software on their hard drives, or in the case of Mac users, if the software isn't supported at all.

If you've ever watched a feature film on YouTube, you know that files are broken up into increments and compressed severely. The new multi-upload application seems ideally suited for the purpose of putting such longer-form media on the site. By also increasing the potential file size, it will likely means that compression will be less of a detriment to picture quality.

Google Video, YouTube's "big brother" that offers non-flash videos for download, has a similar setup already in place. Files 100 MB and smaller are uploadable through a web form, while larger files and batch uploads through a desktop application. The Google Video uploader supports not only Windows, but Mac and Linux as well.

Some competing video hosting services, such as MySpaceTV, adhere to guidelines almost identical to those which formerly applied to YouTube - for instance, supporting only single 100 MB uploads. Metacafe, a site which purports to go through more rigorous content monitoring than those mentioned earlier, offers form-based uploads, as well as an application that utilizes Outlook.

Copyright policies recently adopted by Google supposedly prevent protected content from being uploaded to YouTube. But as it is written in the site's terms of service, Google may reserve the right, but it still has no obligation to pre-screen, review, flag, filter, refuse, remove, or modify any or all content from the site.